occult
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I often describe myself as pagan. I do this because it’s far quicker than explaining my actual views on religion and divinity as it exists within both the modern and ancient worlds and how those two things are connected with an intimacy that the vast majority of people will not honestly admit to. To me,…
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I’ve owned a mask or two. Bust them out on a regular basis, from my plastered-on customer service smile to the resting bitch face I use to ward off conversation on the bus. Having a whole holiday centered around the masking of identity, the dressing up and welcoming of the strange and unusual, is right…
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The word superstition comes from the latin word superstitio meaning “standing over” ie. that a superstition is a belief that stands over or outside of the logical standards of a time. A large part of the way we interpret this word today comes down to Christian thinkers, who used the word superstition to categorize small…
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I took a class on obsidian with the wonderful Curanderismo Lisa Martinez (who teaches this class through the RitualCravt online school, should you be interested in learning about the metaphysical properties and history of obsidian yourself). I was expecting a class on scrying techniques, on ritual, instead what I received was a primer on the…
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Many occult signs are simply a matter of training your brain to notice certain things in your surroundings. Your eyes linger on the hawk circling above you (longer than usual, in my case), you notice the way the coyote’s eyes flash while it crosses the road in front of your car, you’ll spot graffiti you…
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Paint a picture of the American West for me. Paint me sprawling yellow deserts and blue mountains reaching to the heavens, arches of red rock and dusty ghost towns beneath stone spires. Draw me the abandoned mine shafts, the long lonely highways. I want to hear the sad twang of guitar between that night sky…
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The act of naming is strange. As a nonbinary person, I’ve been named a number of times — by my parents, by my friends. This blog itself is written under a penname, but the name I use when I publish is no less real than the names I use with my friends or family. In…
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On the streets of Santiago, Chile in 2011, protests broke out on college campuses to demand a restructuring of higher education in Chile. These student protests faced severe police brutality, but an unexpected protector emerged from the back alleys: Negro Matapacos. A stray black dog who put himself on the front lines of protest, barking,…
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In religious history, folk magic, and occultism the dichotomy between “masculine” and “feminine” energies often play a large part in mythological and therefore ritual construction. I propose that the use of “masculine” and “feminine” encompass multiple different aspects of magic and ought to be deconstructed for more potent spell development. In less academic terms, since…
from the pen of icarus blake 